Act 2, Scene 3

A Hall of Justice.

[Sound trumpets. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, GLOSTER, YORK, SUFFOLK, and SALISBURY; the DUCHESS OF GLOSTER, MARGERY JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, HUME, and BOLINGBROKE, under guard.]
King Henry VI
966 Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloster's wife.
967 In sight of God and us, your guilt is great;
968 Receive the sentence of the law for sins
969 Such as by God's book are adjudg'd to death.—
970 You four, from hence to prison back again,
971 From thence unto the place of execution.
972 The witch in Smithfield shall be burn'd to ashes,
973 And you three shall be strangled on the gallows.—
974 You, madam, for you are more nobly born,
975 Despoiled of your honour in your life,
976 Shall, after three days' open penance done,
977 Live in your country here in banishment,
978 With Sir John Stanley, in the Isle of Man.
Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester
979 Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death.
Duke of Gloucester
980 Eleanor, the law, thou seest, hath judged thee;
981 I cannot justify whom the law condemns.—
[Exeunt Duchess and the other prisoners, guarded..]
Duke of Gloucester
982 Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.
983 Ah, Humphrey, this dishonour in thine age
984 Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground!—
985 I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go;
986 Sorrow would solace, and mine age would ease.
King Henry VI
987 Stay, Humphrey Duke of Gloster.
988 Ere thou go,
989 Give up thy staff; Henry will to himself
990 Protector be, and God shall be my hope,
991 My stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet.
992 And go in peace, Humphrey, no less belov'd
993 Than when thou wert protector to thy king.
Queen Margaret
994 I see no reason why a king of years
995 Should be to be protected like a child.—
996 God and King Henry govern England's realm.
997 Give up your staff, sir, and the king his realm.
Duke of Gloucester
998 My staff? Here, noble Henry, is my staff.
999 As willingly do I the same resign
1000 As e'er thy father Henry made it mine;
1001 And even as willingly at thy feet I leave it
1002 As others would ambitiously receive it.
1003 Farewell, good king; when I am dead and gone,
1004 May honourable peace attend thy throne!
[Exit.]
Queen Margaret
1005 Why, now is Henry king, and Margaret queen;
1006 And Humphrey Duke of Gloster scarce himself,
1007 That bears so shrewd a maim; two pulls at once—
1008 His lady banish'd, and a limb lopp'd off.
1009 This staff of honour raught, there let it stand
1010 Where it best fits to be, in Henry's hand.
Duke of Suffolk
1011 Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays;
1012 Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days.
Richard, Duke of York
1013 Lords, let him go.—Please it your majesty,
1014 This is the day appointed for the combat;
1015 And ready are the appellant and defendant,
1016 The armourer and his man, to enter the lists,
1017 So please your highness to behold the fight.
Queen Margaret
1018 Ay, good my lord; for purposely therefore
1019 Left I the court, to see this quarrel tried.
King Henry VI
1020 O' God's name, see the lists and all things fit.
1021 Here let them end it; and God defend the right!
Richard, Duke of York
1022 I never saw a fellow worse bested,
1023 Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant,
1024 The servant of his armourer, my lords.
[Enter at one door, HORNER the Armourer, and his Neighbours, drinking to him so much that he is drunk; and he enters with a drum before him and his staff with a sand-bag fastened to it; and at the other door PETER, his man, with a drum and sandbag, and Prentices drinking to him.]
First Neighbour
1025 Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in a cup of
1026 sack; and fear not, neighbour, you shall do well enough.
Second Neighbour
1027 And here, neighbour, here's a cup of charneco.
Third Neighbour
1028 And here's a pot of good double beer, neighbour;
1029 drink, and fear not your man.
Thomas Horner
1030 Let it come, i' faith, and I'll pledge you all; and a
1031 fig for Peter!
First Prentice
1032 Here, Peter, I drink to thee; and be not afraid.
Second Prentice
1033 Be merry, Peter, and fear not thy master: fight
1034 for credit of the prentices.
Peter Thump
1035 I thank you all; drink, and pray for me, I pray you, for I
1036 think I have taken my last draught in this world.—Here, Robin,
1037 an if I die, I give thee my apron;—and, Will, thou shalt have my
1038 hammer;—and here, Tom, take all the money that I have.—O Lord
1039 bless me! I pray God! for I am never able to deal with my master,
1040 he hath learnt so much fence already.
Earl of Salisbury
1041 Come, leave your drinking and fall to blows.—
1042 Sirrah, what's thy name?
Peter Thump
1043 Peter, forsooth.
Earl of Salisbury
1044 Peter? what more?
Peter Thump
1045 Thump.
Earl of Salisbury
1046 Thump! then see thou thump thy master well.
Thomas Horner
1047 Masters, I am come hither, as it were, upon my man's instigation,
1048 to prove him a knave and myself an honest man; and touching the
1049 Duke of York, I will take my death, I never meant him any ill,
1050 nor the
1051 king, nor the queen;—and therefore, Peter, have at thee with a
1052 downright
1053 blow!
Richard, Duke of York
1054 Dispatch; this knave's tongue begins to double.—
1055 Sound, trumpets, alarum to the combatants!
[Alarum. They fight, and Peter strikes him down.]
Thomas Horner
1056 Hold, Peter, hold! I confess, I confess treason.
[Dies.]
Richard, Duke of York
1057 Take away his weapon.—Fellow, thank God, and the good
1058 wine in thy master's way.
Peter Thump
1059 O God, have I overcome mine enemies in this presence? O
1060 Peter, thou hast prevail'd in right!
King Henry VI
1061 Go, take hence that traitor from our sight,
1062 For by his death we do perceive his guilt;
1063 And God in justice hath reveal'd to us
1064 The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,
1065 Which he had thought to have murther'd wrongfully.—
1066 Come, fellow, follow us for thy reward.
[Sound a flourish. Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 969historical topical
“by God's book are adjudg'd to death”
'God's book' is the Bible. Henry is pronouncing that Eleanor and her confederates' crimes — treasonable necromancy and witchcraft — are capital offenses both under statute law and under Scripture (Leviticus 20:27 and Exodus 22:18 condemn those who consult spirits or practice sorcery). The real Eleanor Cobham, convicted in 1441, was indeed judged partly on such biblical grounds.
historical Eleanor Cobham and the Witchcraft Trial
TLN 972historical topical
“witch in Smithfield shall be burn'd to ashes”
Smithfield was a large open ground just outside London's walls, the traditional site of public executions by burning; it was where heretics and those convicted of witchcraft were put to death. 'Margery Jourdain' (sentenced here as 'the witch') was the historical 'Witch of Eye' burned at Smithfield in 1441.
historical Eleanor Cobham and the Witchcraft Trial
TLN 976historical topical
“three days' open penance done”
Public penance required the condemned person to walk through the streets, usually barefoot and in a white penitential sheet, carrying a lighted taper, while a town crier announced their crime. Eleanor Cobham underwent this ritual for three days through the streets of London in 1441 — one of the most spectacular public humiliations of a great noble in English medieval history. The next scene (2.4) stages this penance.
historical Eleanor Cobham and the Witchcraft Trialhistorical Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ('Good Duke Humphrey')
TLN 989historical topical
“Give up thy staff; Henry will to himself Protector be”
The Lord Protector's staff of office was his emblem of authority, carried as a physical symbol of the regent's power over the realm during the king's minority. When Henry demands the staff and declares he will be his own Protector, it marks the formal end of Gloucester's regency. 'Protector' was the official title of whoever governed England on behalf of the king when the king was too young or incapacitated to rule.
historical Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester ('Good Duke Humphrey')
TLN 991biblical allusion
“lantern to my feet”
Henry is echoing Psalm 119:105 — 'Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my path' — casting God and Scripture as his guide now that he governs alone without Gloucester's counsel. The image is a direct signal of Henry's piety and also of his political inexperience: where a king might invoke strategic wisdom, Henry invokes Scripture.
TLN 1011rhetorical device
“Thus droops this lofty pine and hangs his sprays”
Suffolk uses an extended plant metaphor — a tall pine tree bowed down, its branches ('sprays') hanging — to describe Gloucester's fall. The image works doubly: the 'lofty pine' is Gloucester, once the highest in the realm, and 'Eleanor's pride' is compared to a plant that dies young. The comparison of a great noble to a tall tree being felled was a standard Elizabethan figure for the fall of princes.
historical The fall of princes (de casibus tragedy)
TLN 1015historical topical
“appellant and defendant, The armourer and his man, to enter the lists”
In a judicial combat, the 'appellant' is the person who makes the accusation (here Peter, the apprentice) and the 'defendant' is the one who must disprove it (here Horner, the armourer). 'The lists' are the enclosed, roped-off fighting area prepared for a formal duel — the term comes from the wooden palisades ('listes') bounding a tournament field. God was supposed to grant victory to the innocent party.
historical Trial by combat and the gage
TLN 1027archaic vocab
“cup of charneco”
'Charneco' was a sweet Portuguese wine, named for a village near Lisbon. Cheaper and rougher than sack (the other drink mentioned), it was popular in Elizabethan taverns and markets. The Second Neighbour is plying Horner with a peasant-grade sweet wine before the combat — adding to the picture of a man who will fight drunk.
TLN 1054wordplay
“this knave's tongue begins to double”
'Double' here means to speak thickly or incoherently — slurred speech of a drunk man (the tongue seems to produce two sounds at once). York is mockingly noting that the already-drunk Horner's rambling confession-speech is becoming impossible to follow, and ordering the trumpets to cut it off and start the fight. The phrasing also carries a hint of 'double-dealing' (being deceitful), adding a legal edge.
TLN 1062historical topical
“by his death we do perceive his guilt; And God in justice hath reveal'd to us The truth”
Henry is applying the theological logic of trial by combat: the loser dies because God has revealed his guilt. Horner's death — and especially his deathbed confession of treason — is taken as divine verdict that his accusation of York was true and that his apprentice Peter was in the right. This is the formal religious premise that made judicial combat a recognized legal procedure in medieval England.
historical Trial by combat and the gage